UK's top campervan spot has forest ponies, gorgeous beaches and a theme park
A British forest with a theme park and beautiful wild ponies is the best place to take a campervan to this summer, according to campervanners themselves.
If you are thinking of heading out in a campervan and want to spend time in some of the country's 15 national parks, then a new study looking at the most popular and sunniest may be helpful.
The most searched-for national parks in the UK among campervanners is the New Forest National Park on the south coast - sandwiched between Bournemouth and Southampton, which receives 1,100 campervan-related searches every month.
The sunny national park also took first place as the best locations for good weather, with an average yearly temperature of 11.1°C and average rainfall of 779mm, according to Select Car Leasing.
The New Forest offers an intriguing blend of wilderness and amenities, housing six campsites, 25 viewpoints/historical landmarks and a great selection of 216 hiking trails.
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The park is filled full of beautiful animals (Getty Images)For 2,000 years wild ponies have been hanging around the New Forest in Hampshire. A staple of the scenery, the 5,000-strong herd roam freely around the 219 square mile national park and are owned by the New Forest commoners who have the right to graze their ponies and cattle on the open forest. Their grass-nibbling helps with the upkeep of the place.
If you fancy taking a break from soaking up the natural wonder of the woodlands, then a trip to New Forest's family friendly theme park may be in order. Paultons Park, situated near the village of Ower, has more than 70 rides and attractions and is ranked the UK's best family orientated theme park on Google.
Likely to be most popular with younger kids is Peppa Pig World and The Lost Kingdom, which has 27 animatronic dinosaurs. The park covers 140 acres of land and features a collection of around 80 species of birds and animals.
The villages that are scattered across the park are filled with thatched cottages, traditional old pubs and posh independent shops to potter around. Earlier this summer Mirror writer Olivia Williams and her boyfriend headed down to the forest to find out what it was all about.
"We’d booked an electric bike ride through the forest that morning and met Clare Dark and Lisa Morgan, owners of Jaunt-E Bikes, who dropped the bikes off at the hotel and explained how to use them," she wrote.
"Retro-style with chunky tyres, they have five levels of pedal-assist, perfect to save you from sweating up any pesky hills. We chose a non-road route and rode for two hours, passing ponies, cows and their calves as we took in the beauty of the forest.
Just one of the rides at Paultons (PR Handout)"Suitably energised, we decided to get some sea air and visited Lymington, the colourful coastal town with an ancient seaport and a rich maritime history for a nosey around the market and look at the fishing boats.
"That evening we headed out to The Trusty Servant, a country inn at Minstead, which serves locally sourced homemade food and local ales inside inviting rooms."
A particularly intriguing aspect of the woodland is that it runs along the sea, boasting as it does 40 miles of coastline that allows you to be within the thicket one moment and larking around on the sand the next.
One thing to note is that while the New Forest has plenty of sweeping vistas and winding roads that will turn any drive into a pleasant experience, staying in a campervan there can be tricky. Overnight stays are prohibited in the national park, unless a landowner has granted you permission to park in their layby.
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Happily there are plenty of campsites where you can pitch up for from just £10. You can head to Pitchup.com to find one that suits you.
The New Forest is a two-hour drive from London, a 90-minute drive from Bath, or a two-and-a-half-hour trip from Exeter. You can get there via train by heading to Brockenhurst station which links up to London Waterloo.
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